[[!meta date="2007-06-04"]]
[[!meta author="Tyler Cipriani"]]
[[!meta license="""
[[Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License|https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/]]
"""]]
[[!meta copyright="""
Copyright &copy; 2017 Tyler Cipriani
"""]]
[[!meta title="Troubleshoot Firefox Multimedia Plugins"]]

<p> OK, we've all been there, lookin' up some video in Firefox and when we find
it, the player just sits there, no video plays, and we are sad. So, what do we
do? We push foward, whenever the little yellow bar comes on top of our screen
we mindlessly install the "missing" plugins but when it comes down to it,
do we <i>really</i> know what to do in a multimedia-plugin-related crisis?
What happens when you can't watch the latest episode of the <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://www.tomgreen.com/" target="_blank">Tom
Green</a> show when you <i>think</i> you've got all your plugins
<i>plugged-in</i>, so to speak? For most people, nothing happens;
people have a way of just going about their lives missing out on great
online video content simply because they can't figure out why the
embeded video won't work. To this, I say, "NAY!" Ok, so maybe I
wouldn't say <i>Nay</i> so much as I would say, "That Sucks, I ain't
goin' out like that!" (Yeah, I'm gangsta! WHAT!?!) That's why this
article is here, to help all the people adrift somewhere out in
Firefox-internet-land without a plugin to save them.</p><ul><li>The
first thing you might want to check once inside Firefox is what plugins
you have installed. You can do this by keying up to Firefox's URL bar
(Ctrl+L) and typing "about:plugins" without the quotes. This gives you
a list of all the plugins that are installed in Firefox. You should see
things like "RealPlayer Version Plugin", "Windows Media Player Plug-in
Dynamic Link Library", "Java Plug-in", and "Microsoft® DRM". If you
don't see some (or any) of those plugins don't sweat it, this article
is <b>definitely</b> for you.</li> <li> Now that you know what you have
installed you should test all of your plugins to make sure they're
working (this is also a good way to see what you might still need to
install if you couldn't tell from "about:plugins"). You can test all of
your media plugins for Firefox <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://kb.mozillazine.org/Testing_plugins"
target="_blank">here.</a></li> <li> Alright, by now you probably know
what's what. You know what's missing so now you just need to download
that ish. You can download most common Firefox plugins <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:7"
target="_blank">here</a> and you can get more Firefox info (and more
plugins) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/"
target="_blank">here</a>. <b>BUT WAIT</b> I wouldn't just go mindlessly
downloading plugins (that's how you end up with embeded video that just
doesn't work) If I were you, which I am (don't question me!) I wouldn't
download iTunes and Quicktime just to watch the occasional embeded
Quicktime video. Instead I would just download the light-weight version
of Quicktime -- Quicktime Alternative <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm"
target="_blank">(Download Link)</a>. You should also download the
alternative (to the much hated [by me]) RealPlayer -- RealPlayer
Alternative <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm"
target="_blank">(Download Link)</a>. I also don't like to use the
bloated Adobe Acrobat and instead opted for the light-weight and agile
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://www.foxitsoftware.com/"
target="_blank">Foxit Reader</a>.</li> <li> So you think you're pretty
hot stuff don't ya? You've got all the plugins you need, huh? Think
you're better than me? Well, mister (or Ma'am) it's time to put that
theory to the test. Go back to step 2 and test all the plugins you
updated or downloaded and make sure they work. If they don't work a
good first step is to check for solutions to your specific problem on
Google. If your problem pertains to embeded WMV, RealPlayer, or
Quicktime then I would refer to this little <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206216"
target="_blank">guide</a>. I had some trouble getting Quicktime
Alternative to play embeded video, The procedure to solve that problem
was pretty simple: click Start &gt; Control Panel &gt; Quicktime &gt;
click on the browser tab &gt; make sure you have "Play movies
automatically" checked &gt; click "MIME Settings..." &gt; under "MPEG -
MPEG system, video, and audio files" &gt; I selected (checkboxed) all
except AAC Audio and AAC Audio Book &gt; click "OK" &gt; click "Apply";
Now restart your Firefox and that should be it! If you are having
trouble with Windows Media Player (which is pretty common in Firefox)
check out the amazingly detailed guide <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206213"
target="_blank">here</a> That guide is so good, even I can follow
it!</li> </ul><p>Alright, after reading this article you should be good
to go as far as Firefox multimedia plugins are concerned. However,
there is one last plugin I would recommend to you: the *balloontoablimp
search plugin! With the
*balloontoablimp search plugin you can search *balloontoablimp from the
default search box in the upper-right corner of your browser and the
plugin is incredibly simple to set up (what have you got to lose?
Coolness? I don't think so). All you have to do is download these two
files (<a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://www.box.net/shared/9orrtfvepk"
target="_blank">here</a> and <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070701212405/http://www.box.net/shared/d0zo2lc113"
target="_blank">here</a>) and save them both to C:\Program
Files\Mozilla Firefox\search plugins, restart your Firefox, and that's
it. You can key up to your search box (Ctrl+K) and select
*balloontoablimp from the drop-down menu, now you can search our
website where ever ye be!<br /> So I guess that about does it. Happy
Firefoxing (yeah, I used it as a verb, WHAT!?!).</p>

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